Saturday, March 30, 2013

The New Seven Wonders of Nature

The New Seven Nature Wonders of the World

Here is a list of the current (2011/2012) seven natural wonders of the world as chosen by the public from a vote. The votes are held by the New7Wonders initiative started in 2007. It was led by Canadian-Swiss Bernard Weber and is a Swiss-based foundation. The last vote was held at 11.11am in November 11th 2011. The results of this poll will be announced in the early months of 2012 after stringent counts, checks and rechecks. Below is a list of the current seven wonders before these changes come into force.
I have organised them below in alphabetical order, they are not and do not get, ranked. All wonders are of equal merit.

The Amazon Rainforest



Quick Facts:


  • The rainforest, so vast is located within 9 nations; Bolivia, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela.
  • Represents the remaining rainforest.
  • The Amazon is the most specie-rich tropical rainforest in the world.
  • The Amazon river, located in the Amazon, is the largest river (in volume) in the world.


Halong Bay




Quick Facts:


  • Located in Quáng Ninh Vietnam
  • Compiles of islands in various shapes and sizes and thousands of limestone karsts (rocks shaped by erosion).
  • One specific feature of Halong Bay is the lake within the huge limestone island.
  • Many of the islands are hollow and there are openings to enormous caves.
  • The caves have up to 200 species of fish and 450 species of mollusks.

Iguazu Falls



Quick Facts:


  • Located in the Iguazu river in between the borders of Argentine Missiones, and the Brazilian state of Paran á.
  • On of the largest waterfalls in the world with a top height of 82 metres.
  • The falls are formed by a group of 272 smaller falls.
  • The biggest attraction of the Iguazu falls is the Garganta del Diablo, or Devil's Throat where the largest volume of water passes causing an almighty roar. The sound of which can be heard several miles away.

Jeju Island



Quick Facts:


  • Jeju is a volcanic island.
  • It is both the smallest province and the largest island located 130km from the southern cost of korea.
  • The surface area of the island is just 1846sqkm.
  • A central feature of Jeju is Hallasan is the tallest mountain and dormant volcano which rises 1950m above sea level.
  • There are 360 satellite volcanoes around the main volcano.

Komodo Island




Quick Facts:


  • Located in the National Park, Indonesia.
  • Komodo is one of three main islands that make up the national park. The other two are Rinca and Padar. There are also numerous other smaller islands orbiting.
  • The park was founded in 1980 to protect its inhabitants, the komodo dragon. Since then it is in place to also protect other species including marine animals.
  • The islands of the national park are of volcanic origin.

Puerto Princesa Subterranean River



Quick Facts:


  • Located in the Philippines about 50km north of the city centre of Puerto Princesa, Palawan, in a the St. Paul mountain range.
  • Also known as St. Paul's subterranean river due to its location.
  • Asia's longest subterranean river measuring 8.2km and the world's second longest.
  • The river comes out into a lagoon said to possess heavenly clear waters.
  • The caves on the river has carved has many stalactites and stalagmites, as well as many chambers.

Table Mountain



Quick Facts:


  • Located above Cape Town in South Africa.
  • It spans 57sqkm.
  • The highest point of the mountain is at Maclear's Beacon, standing at 1086m above sea level on the eastern side of the front of the mountain.
  • The level plateau is approximately 3km long.
  • Table mountain was named so in 1503 after Antonio Saldanha, the first european who landed in Table Bay, climbed it.
  • It is the only destination on Earth to have a constellation of stars named after it.